Education: The only way to raise standards is to privatise every school

The crisis in state education deepens. Head teachers queue outside Charles Clarke’s door to explain to the education secretary how the black hole of increased pension and National Insurance contributions will swallow any extra resources the government has provided and lead, inevitably, to teacher redundancies.

Their woes do not end there. Staff recruitment, particularly in the southeast, remains a major problem. Seventy per cent of GCSE physics teachers do not have even an A-level in the subject. Fifty per cent of new teachers leave the profession within three years. Grade inflation and political interference have undermined public and professional confidence in the exam system. Employers complain about worsening skill shortages. The national literacy and numeracy strategies have stalled, and the government does not know what to do.

Neither does any other political party. The Liberal Democrats appear to believe that yet more spending will solve the problems. The Conservatives, while